LEARNING GAINS FROM A BRIEF LECTURE/DEMONSTRATION OF MOON PHASES
However, students struggled to answer moon-phase questions on the final exam two weeks later. Two sections had an essay question: “Explain why the moon sometimes appears as a crescent, sometimes as a circle (full moon), and sometimes not at all (new moon).” Only 25% answered correctly (in prose or with a well-labeled diagram). 40% had incomplete explanations or diagrams, several simply stating: “Because the moon has phases.” The remaining 35% were incorrect explanations. However, only 7% of the answers (20% of the incorrect explanations) described moon phases as the result of Earth’s shadow. Other answers included references to Earth’s rotation and a diagram of the solar system with the sun between the Earth and the moon.
Another section was given a multiple-choice question with a diagram of the sun, the Earth, and the moon in a line in that order and a list of moon phases from which to choose. Only 40% of the students answered correctly, approximately the same as on the pre-test for the lesson.
In the short term, the number of students who could choose the best explanation for moon phases on a multiple-choice question increased substantially. Two weeks later, many of those students either could not repeat that explanation or had adopted a new misconception about moon phases.